I decided to head back to Goose Creek and try my luck at that channel catfish school again. The morning was gorgeous - nippy 58 degrees, no wind, warm water and low humidity set the stage for a gently rising fog vapor from the creek. I looked for the school where I last saw them, but I didn't even see sunfish. I cast for awhile - first with the flyrod, then the ultralight spinning gear, then with Gulp and I wasn't getting any response. The water level was lower than last Monday, so I decided to try a different approach. I headed back up stream and cast softbait into the pools. That wasn't really working either. I kept going upstream and ended up near the trailhead. I saw a fish rolling out of the corner of my eye and I started casting across the narrow-ish part of the creek. I hit paydirt and spent the next hour reeling in fish (mostly green sunfish) cast after cast. I did get a few other types of fish - a Flier (Crappie) and some bass (saving that for the next post). After a few minutes of casting, I took the 5wt out again and the result was the same - tons of fun fish to hand. I'm not sure if it was the location, the terrain, the softbait, or the Sun's position, but it sure did take a while for the creek bite to turn on. Maybe next time I'll sleep in and stall the dawn patrol. Or maybe I'll wait for Marlon's Saturday show to end and then go and bring him too (darn Pokemon...)
Not really - but I did catch some small mouth and low and behold they were colored a little lighter than their slightly more southerly cousins (or their brothers/sisters that went with the flow over the Mathers Gorge...). I went out with some friends to Algonkian Park and paddled the Hooked SUP armed with two 5wt rods (150 grain intermediate sinking line; 5wt floating line) and the St Croix Ultra light spinning rod. I used the blue pencil popper and it KICKING BUTT!!! I caught this 15 inch small mouth and it was an epic fight!!! The blue popper also tricked a large-ish green sunfish and a smaller medium sized large mouth (yes I wrote that on purpose ;) . The ultralight gear brought in a couple more small mouth (smaller than the 15"er) and several more sunfish. I saw several catfish in the 18-24" category and a few big carp, but I didn't have anything in my tackle boxes that was interesting to them. The picture with my tongue hanging out is proof of the pure awesomeness happening on the river. Awesome fishing trip (and only 20 minutes from the house)!
